Moviewatcher122's 2017 Film Diary: March

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I'm sorry, I'm just blown away by this movie. So much so that I don't even know where to begin. It is one of the most effective horror movies I have seen in quite a while. Even though the horror genre has had a bit of a resurgence lately, this is quite possibly one of the best horror films to come from this decade. It's the first movie of the genre in what feels like ages where a lot of the moments have stuck with me after only a few days of watching it. First, I'm going to say that the story is one of the most original, fresh ideas I've seen in any movie in recent years. Not only that, but it's executed perfectly while also being very thought-provoking and has some very biting social commentary on recent issues.

All of the characters were fantastic as well with Daniel Kaluuya who sells the main character flawlessly and I really felt like I was in his perspective at certain points. Not only that, but Lil Rel Howery is great at providing comic relief when needed and Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener are great as the parents. As for how scary this movie is, I'm more than impressed by how subtle it is in terms of scares. It does have a couple jump scares, (Which still work very well.) but it's really more scary on a psychological level and I was really creeped out around the majority of the second half. Not to mention that it's also beautiful on a visual level to the point where it has to be seen in theatres to truly experience.

And because Jordan Peele is involved in this, you may expect it to be funny in certain parts and in this case you'd be right. It's not constantly funny, but whenever it tries to be funny, it works very well and it does so without breaking the tone of the film.

It's not just a great movie, but it's one that came out at the right time. It's already doing well for itself with it getting rave reviews and topping the box office charts and rightfully so. It's a very important movie that has something to say while also trying to scare you and make you laugh at the same time. It is just a true masterpiece and while the year is still young, I'm ready to call this one of, if not the best movie of 2017. It's really that good and I could praise it all day if I could.

"With the world so set on tearing itself apart, it don't seem like such a bad thing to me to want to put a little bit of it back together."

I can't say I was expecting too much from this particular film, but that's mainly because when I saw a trailer for this, it felt like they gave the whole entire movie away. Granted, there was a reason for it, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth. Anyways, this turned out to be great. The first half does a solid job of telling this guy's life story and Andrew Garfield does a great job of portraying him. Also Vince Vaughn who I was shocked was even in this turned out to be great as the drill sergeant. He's kind of like the sergeant in Full Metal Jacket except a hell of a lot more angrier. He also does have some humorous dialogue, but this movie shows that he can actually act and have some emotion in his performance.

I was originally going to give this an 8/10 as from the first half I thought it was a pretty good, but not great. However, once the second half started I was completely sucked in. I was really on the edge of my seat at that point and those war scenes rival the one in Saving Private Ryan in terms of intensity. From that point on I was really rooting for him and just watching him go through all of this was amazing. That is what made it from a pretty good war movie to a great one.

"Hey, you bald-headed prick! Don't you ever get caught on the take. Because if you wind up in any joint I'm in, you'll leave feet first."

This is considered to be one of Sidney Lumet's bottom tier films and after watching it, I don't quite understand why. It may be a standard crime flick, but what sells it for me was the casting. The inclusion of Matthew Broderick in the same film as Sean Connery and Dustin Hoffman surprisingly works wonders and they made this movie really enjoyable. Besides that it is a fun movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and it can actually be funny at times. I've only seen a small amount of Lumet's work, but so far I think this is his most underrated film.

"And when you sing "Cry Me a River," it doesn't have to be the whole river."

Now this was I really only watched because Rob Reiner is the director for this one and I tend to watch anything he directs. Even if he's not the director he once was. Anyways, this was a mess. I found the overall plot to be very disjointed and all over the place. Because of that the movie was really frustrating to watch at times while at other times it comes close to being an almost tolerable film. There were some painfully stupid moments here and there, but there were also some moments that were kind of cute. Plus the cast does OK despite the weak material they are given. I was so close to calling this a bad movie, but it didn't really go far enough for me to consider it as such. It's just a very middling effort from Rob Reiner and I'll probably forget about it very quickly.

Not only was this a pretty funny movie, but it's kind of scary today since it's become more relevant in recent years. Especially in light of Trump becoming president. *sigh* Can't believe the idiot that rants on Twitter is now president. *looks around* OK, I don't think he even visits Listal. I think we're safe from him here.

Back to this movie though. Most of the humor is pretty stupid, but it's so stupid to the point where it's funny. Cheech Marin does do a good enough job without Chong and the scenes with him and Daniel Stern were some of the best parts this movie had to offer. Unfortunately, this movie does lose some of it's comedic steam after an hour into this, but considering that this is only an 85 minute movie, it isn't really that much of a problem. Not only that, but it does also end on a thoughtful note, so I can forgive the second half not being as funny.

"Nature made me a freak. Man made me a weapon. And God made it last too long."

After years of waiting, we finally have the definitive Wolverine movie. Before that we had X-Men Origins which I hated and The Wolverine which was actually pretty fun, but this one is the true Wolverine movie. It's also a welcome breath of fresh air from all the other Marvel films we've been getting recently. This one is surprisingly grounded into reality and the overall tone is pretty dark. Wolverine is bitter and not the person he used to be and Professor Xaiver is weak and frail. Hugh Jackman and Patrick stewart do a fantastic job as their respective roles, but the character that stood out the most was Dafne Keen as Laura. She did an amazing job not just for her age, but in general as well. What's really impressive though is her performance is more subtle and she doesn't really speak throughout most of the film. I honestly think she could be the next Chloe Moretz.

Now this movie is really gory and it really lives up to it's R rating. I think this movie owes quite a lot to Deadpool's sucess because if it didn't do as well as it did, Logan might've not been able to be the movie it wanted to be. Hell, even though The Wolverine had an R-rated cut, the overall tone still felt like a Hollywood action movie. As for the ending, I'm not going to go into detail about it just in case you haven't seen it already, but while I did have a feeling it could end the way it did, I still didn't see it coming and it was a perfect way to end it.

This was just an amazing movie all around. It's the perfect send-off for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and I'd go as far as to call this The Dark Knight of the X-Men franchise and one of my favorite Marvel films if not my number one favorite. If you haven't seen it already then what the hell are you doing still reading this? See it now.

"Why, the whole world will pay to see this."
"No chains will ever hold that."
"We'll give him more than chains. He's always been king of his world, but we'll teach him fear. We're millionaires, boys. I'll share it with all of you. Why, in a few months, it'll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World."

I've been meaning to see the original King Kong for years and now that Kong: Skull Island is coming out this month, I thought I'd get around to finally watching this one along with the other ones. (Including the Peter Jackson remake which I haven't seen in a decade.) Now I'm kicking myself for not seeing this one earlier because this is a masterpiece of the golden Hollywood era. Every frame of this film is amazing and the story of King Kong here is timeless. The acting is also great and there are many classic lines of dialogue. As for the special effects, they are pretty much known for being dated, but it doesn't take away the experience from me. Sure they look dated, but at the time these special effects were amazing and I still think they are charming to look at. What else can I say that hasn't been said about this? It's not only a classic, but it's a highly influential one as well that played a part in what made cinema what it is today.

"You know I had my horoscope done before I flew out to Hong Kong. And it said that I was going to cross over water and meet the biggest person in my life."

Well, forget the original King Kong because this one is "The most exciting original motion picture event of all time." Yeah, we're not riding on the coattails on something that already existed. This is something new and original. But seriously, this is nowhere near as good as the original. Going into this one I was expecting the worst from it, but I went out of it thinking it was just OK. First of all, if anyone is going to complain to me about how terrible the special effects in the original King Kong look, I'll tell them to watch the 70's remake and then talk to me later because the effects in this one have not held up very well. Some of it looks fine, but most of it looks really cheesy. King Kong himself looks pretty dopey at times and there's some very obvious green shots as seen in the image above.

What really bugged me about this remake though is that it's mostly King Kong in name only. It doesn't have that same adventurous feel that the original has and it mostly focuses on the romance between Kong and Dwan. (Did not want that to rhyme.) In fact, Kong is pretty much a pervert in this incarnation. Sure he was a little creepy in the original with him sniffing woman's clothing, but here he looks like he wants to bone her. This damn dirty ape can be so creepy to the point where you just want him to keep it in his proverbial pants. The love story itself is written in an odd way where it's supposed to be romantic or something, but it just feels forced. At least in the Peter Jackson version (From what I can remember.) it was written well enough.

Another problem I had is that it went on for way too long. That might be an odd thing to say considering that the aforementioned remake is 3 hours, but in this version there's so much padding. The journey to Skull Island didn't need to be as long as it was, the scene with the natives didn't need to be as long as it was and the scenes with King Kong and Jessica Lange definitely don't need to be as long as they were. If they were pulled off well then maybe the length of those scenes could've been justified, but as it stands, they're just drawn out to be as long as possible. You know what they could've added instead of all this padding? The dinosaurs! I was shocked to find out that there were no dinosaurs in this movie at all. I assumed they would be there since they were in the original and the 2005 version, but no they are nowhere to be seen. Well, maybe one if you count the film's producer
Dino De Laurentiis. *rimshot*

As flawed as this interpretation of King Kong is, I still don't think it's that bad. There are at least a few scenes that were entertaining, the cast does a decent enough job with Jeff Bridges delivering the best performance. And if anything else, well Jessica Lange does serve as some nice eye candy. This is by no means a good movie, but if you look at it as a 70's disaster movie that just happens to star King Kong instead of an actual remake of the source material, then you might get some enjoyment out of it.

"What the hell is this? Deliverance?"
"You there! Are those weapons loaded?"
"You bet, General! And so are we!"
"You'll be shooting each other, you damn fool! You wanna get killed?"
"I want that ape's head on the hood of my pickup!"

I actually remember catching a bit of this on TCM years ago and didn't really think much of it back then. Now after watching it from start to finish, I can understand why because this is one of the most baffling sequels I have ever seen. First off all, the plot makes no sense. First there's the fact that King Kong was in a coma this whole time even though he got shot multiple times and fell off The World Trade, but the biggest problem is this one simple question that the movie never answers. Why do these people want to bring Kong back to life? The whole reason they shot him is because he was a threat to the city, so why are they going through all this effort to save him? It's never addressed, but that would be asking too much from this movie. It's filled with dumbass characters and terrible writing with a nonsensical plot to hold this shit together.

It is such a bad sequel and not even in a so bad it's fun way. If there's one good thing I can say about it is that some of the special effects look good and Kong's final rampage was actually decent. I might've shown this film some mercy and give it a slightly higher rating if it didn't end the way it did. They had the nerve to kill off King Kong right after what should've been a happy ending. This movie is called King Kong Lives for Christ sake! Having a misleading title is one thing, but straight up lying in the title is just despicable.

The saddest thing about this sequel is that it could've worked because with the exception of Son of Kong, there really wasn't any sequels to King Kong. There was only the original, Son of Kong, the 70's version and a couple Toho movies starring him, so the idea of a new story with Kong in it really could've worked. Even with it's poorly-executed story, it does have at least a couple ideas that are somewhat interesting like Kong falling in love with someone his own species for once. Ah well, at least I have Skull Island to look forward to.

I pretty much knew what to expect going into this one. Looking into the history of this film it turns out that it was rushed to come out as quickly after the first one as possible and it really shows at times. The writing isn't as strong as it could've been and the stop-motion unfortunately looks rushed in certain parts. Even though this movie could've had a lot more work put into it, for the deadline it was put into it was good as it possibly could've been. It does start off slow, but it does get more interesting as it goes on and there was still quite a bit of fun to be had with this sequel.

So, while this movie would've been a lot better if it wasn't forced to be rushed, it's still good for what it is. If you're expecting a great sequel to King Kong then you'll be disappointed, but if you lower your expectations then you might get some enjoyment out of it.

"Listen you guys, cut out the rough stuff or I'll feed you to the lions. The kid's cigarettes will be on your check. Enjoy yourselves... gentlemen."

I decided to throw Mighty Joe Young into the mix since a few people that worked on the original King Kong were involved in the making of this as well, but mostly just because. It turned out to be just as good as I thought it would be. It does a good job of telling it's own story while borrowing some elements that made the original King Kong work, but it's a very fun movie with a charming story. The stop-motion in this one is also very solid, especially the work on Mighty Joe Young himself which is still impressive to this day. The only time where it looked very obvious was that one scene where Mighty Joe Young was fighting against lions. In some shots they have real lions, but in others they are obviously stop-motion. It's very noticeable, but it doesn't take away from the scene for me and I'll take glaringly obvious stop-motion over CGI any day. The final scene in this movie is also impressive and I really liked how it looked on a technical level. Overall, this was a fun movie that I enjoyed more than Son of Kong and it's definitely worth checking out.

I randomly caught this one on Netflix and I thought I'd check it out since I've been in a Green Day fix lately. Well, it does live up to it's title as it is a pretty ordinary film. It's a generic mid-life crisis story that's been done better in other movies. That's not to say it's not without merit or anything because it does have some things going for it. There were some genuinely funny moments here and there and while Billie Joe Armstrong's character was a little annoying at times, his acting wasn't bad. Still it is a generic story that doesn't really have enough going for it to make it stand out, but it's not really something I regret watching either. It was just OK. It's not something that's worth tracking down or anything, but if you find it on Netflix or something then by all means check it out if you're interested.

"An uncharted island. Let me list all the ways you're gonna die: rain, heat, disease-carrying flies, and we haven't started on the things that want to eat you alive."

Now this was a damn good Kong movie. It took decades for it to happen, but we've finally got a solid King Kong story that's fresh. First, the special effects in this movie are stunning. Despite the fact that CGI has lost some of it's charm due to how glaringly obvious it can be if done poorly, the CGI effects here are great. What makes me appreciate them even more is the fact that I sat through the end credits for a reason that I'll get into later and there were a lot of names. There were thousands and thousands of them just for the effects department alone. The action in this movie is also great as well. There were so many great monster battles and there was a lot going on in those scenes that it makes the 2014 Godzilla look like nothing.

But besides those aspects the characters are developed well enough. It had a very solid cast with Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson delivering the kind of performances you'd expect from them. On top of that, John C. Reilly actually made for a good comic relief character. They use him well enough without over-doing it or making him incredibly over the top to the point where he'd basically be a cartoon character. As for Kong himself, he's likeable as always and every moment of screen time he's in is just awesome.

Now this movie isn't without it's faults. It did have a pretty slow build and while that isn't too uncommon for a Kong flick, I found the first two minutes of it to be... weird. There's also some instances where the writing could've been improved a little bit. Then again it doesn't really matter too much since I'm not looking for excellent writing in this kind of film. This was pretty much what I wanted this movie to be. It's a highly enjoyable popcorn movie and is a worthy addition to the Kong franchise. It may not cross the line of greatness for me, but I do think it's good enough for me to consider it a strong 8. It was a solid origin story and I just had a lot of fun with it.

NOTE: This might be a little late if you're reading this now, but if you haven't seen this already make sure to stay for the post-credits scene. It's definitely worth sitting through.

This was just a pretty average, middle-of-the-road Denzel Washington vehicle. It is well-made for the most part and it does have its moments, but I just couldn't really get into it that much. It's a fine movie to watch if you're a Denzel Washington fan or have nothing better to do like me, but it's not really something you'll remember watching after a week or so.

"What is your greatest ambition in life?"
"To become immortal... and then die."

After finally seeing this, I can easily say that this is just as good as it's reputation would have you believe. The cinematography was breathtaking, the story was really interesting and style of editing was amazing for its time. It doesn't quite reach the status of masterpiece for me, but I still loved it and I'm glad I chose to end the month with it.

Comments

Very cool that you're running through the Kong films. Completely agreed on the 70s & the original, and I'm considering revisiting the Jackson remake soon since I haven't seen it since it came out. I may wait until after I see Skull Island though. We'll see.

My list isn't ready yet, but nice to see we also had some similar thoughts on Get Out and Logan.